Facebook insights is an analytics tool that one can use to track web statistics related to a Facebook business page. It goes beyond the number of “Likes” one has received and provides a deeper set of metrics that allow visibility into the volume of users within the extended friend network (could be used as a rough proxy for addressable market), the number of people engaging with the page, and the page’s weekly reach.

The graphs on the page are easy to decipher, so one can track the popularity of the page over time via the “people talking bout this” and “weekly total reach” trend lines, overlaid with the posts that have been made. The tool also gives a detailed breakdown of each post so that one can assess which ones generated the greatest user engagement (i.e. clicking on the post), which posts have generated the most conversation (likes, shares, or comments), the posts’ virality (the percentage of people that have created a story related to the post relative to the total number that saw it), and its reach (the number of unique people that have seen the post).

Further into the tool, one can access basic demographic data such as location, language, gender, and age. It also shows where the “likes” came from (e.g. on a PC, mobile, etc.). Unsurprisingly, the most engagement comes via mobile which aligns to the overall trend with Facebook usage. We also see referring site, which sections of the page are most popular (e.g. Timeline, profile, etc.), and how many people have engaged with the page relative to the number of people that saw it. There are also graphs that show how much of the page’s reach was generated by organic, vs. paid vs. viral origin. Finally, the tool provides a demographic cut of the conversation data, which helps you know your audience.

These metrics offer guidance on post topics or formats that can be used in the future, that may resonate with their fan base more effectively and spur broader interest outside of the page’s immediate network. For a free tool, Facebook insights provides a fair amount of data that an organization can use as it dips its toes into the realm of social media.

Hootsuite provides a dashboard for managing your social networks. The tool is free to use for people or organizations that have fewer than five social networks that they want to include in the dashboard. The tool enables one to both view streams of all the updates that are made across your various SM accounts, as well as post messages to each from this one portal. One can also schedule messaging, which is useful if one wants to program updates at a particular time or based on a related event, which is a useful automation capability that will surely be appreciated by a social media/PR marketing team. Hootsuite offers training through brief video tutorials that enable users to quickly ramp up on the basic features, as well as more detailed walkthroughs of its advanced functionality.

The free version of the tool offers all of the centralized tracking and posting capabilities that a single person or small organization might need. The pro version is only $10/month, and it provides more robust analytics tools and allows for multiple users which is helpful if one has a small social media team. Hootsuite is being used by prominent organizations such as Ikea, McDonalds, and PepsiCo. Our small Food Truck King team now uses it as well to manage our presence in the social media world.

New York City has the Village Voice, Seattle has The Stranger, and Downtown Bellevue has…the Downtown Bellevue Network! Catchy? Maybe not if one is an aural snob…In fact, this city revels in creativity, as evidenced in the thought-provoking and timeless names that it has bestowed unto its most famous landmarks: the “Downtown Park”, and “Bellevue Square Mall”, and “Bellevue Towers”, and the “Bellevue Park & Ride”, and the “Bellevue Towers”, and of course, “The Bellevue“. Sense a theme?

But while Bellevue may be the boring older sister to Seattle’s quirkier yet far more obnoxious younger sister, that doesn’t mean that Bellevueites (Bellevueans? Bellevuers?) don’t like to partake in the benefits of urban living…and that is exactly what the Downtown Bellevue Network is here to help them do.

From its blog to its Facebook page, the DBN is there to help its citizens answer the perennial question: “what’s the haps, son?”

This blog truly goes a long way towards dispelling the local stereotype of Bellevue being a soulless, commercial vortex.

Then again, without this blog, where else would we find a handy list of Late Night Happy Hours, so us fine residents can head up to the rooftop deck of Daniels at 9:30PM and commiserate about how the rain short-circuited our new Model S’ battery pack, while sipping on a snifter of Henry IV.